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Comment by troad | Hacker News Reader

You're implying I'm not a grown up, but characterising a language created in 2016 - current version zero point something something - as immature is 'extreme' to you? C'mon now.

Zig is immature. That's not some conclusive judgment against its utility now and forever, it is simply a function of the amount of times the Earth has orbited the Sun since its creation.

Given how Zig is positioning itself vis-a-vis C, Rust, etc., it is somewhat baffling to me how little respect it seems to have for the opinions and capabilities of its end users.

People who want their hands held have better choices than Zig, and people who want the freedom to code how they wish... also have better choices than Zig. I think Zig is onto something, but hype cycles always fade, and if Zig hasn't matured by that point, there won't be any obvious niche for it to occupy.

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Formatting is a very weird thing to get hung up on, particularly when a language like Go is reaching mainstream (if it already isn't there). It's fine not to like the chosen formatting or the decisions made upstream but that comes with the territory. It just means that languages like Go, Zig, and others following this trend are probably not for you and that's okay.

> how little respect it seems to have for the opinions and capabilities of its end users

I think you misunderstand the objective here. As I understand it, it means that all code written in the language looks the same. This significantly improves readability and as we all (should) know, code is read much more than it is written. It's not about deducing the capabilities of the end users but more about reducing the cognitive load while having to read or write in the language itself.

If you still decide to write in one of these formatting-defined languages, it would probably be best to keep the repository and/or project private to avoid the barrage of "ran fmt on the code" pull requests sure to crop up. It would save all parties from a lot of frustration.

I think you misunderstand my objection.

I have no problem with style guides or linters. I have a problem with a compiler that deliberately emits compiler errors on the use of \t, just as an example, because the author likes to throw Lego bricks under your feet if you refuse to obey his stylistic preferences.

I could explain where style guides can become a problem - usually in extremely low level code, emulation, legacy interop, etc. - and therefore need to be relaxed or ignored, but this would divert us onto a discussion of stylistic preferences, and that's not my chief concern here. My concern is the contempt for people's different needs and use cases, including edge cases, which is indicative of immaturity.

> If you still decide to write in one of these formatting-defined languages, it would probably be best to keep the repository and/or project private to avoid the barrage of "ran fmt on the code" pull requests sure to crop up. It would save all parties from a lot of frustration.

That's a rather patronising comment. I feel no frustration closing low effort PRs, and I'm honestly somewhat amused by this idea of living in terror of a 'barrage' of "I linted your code for you!"s.

You characterized Zig as "not a language for grown-ups" because it enforces a consistent syntax. I was expressing the opposite opinion. You seem to be objecting to a whole bunch of things that I didn't say. I'm just a guy who likes consistent code formatting and good faith arguments.

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